Конференция по английскому языку "Traditions and parades in London"
творческая работа учащихся по английскому языку (9 класс) на тему

Traditions and parades

in London

Копенкина Анастасия

 МАОУ «Лицей № 37»

2012-2013 год.

        Annotation

London has preserved its old ceremonies and parads to a greater extent than any other city in England. Most of these traditions have been kept up without interruption since the thirteenth century.

Foreigners coming to London are impressed by quite a number of ceremonies, which seem to be incompatible with the modern traffic and technical conditions of a highly developed country. Uniforms are rather characteristic of this fact. When one sees the warders at the Tower of London with their funny hats and unusual dresses with royal monograms, one feels carried back to the age of Queen Elizabeth I.

Even in the unromantic everyday life of English businessmen we can see the same formal traditions. In the City of London there may be seen a number of men in top-hats. These are the bank messengers who had to put on these hats according to traditions. The same tradition makes the Eton boys (the boys of Eton College which was founded in 1440 by Henry VI) put on a silk hat, a very short jacket and long trousers.

All of you, of course, have seen English films and noticed official black dresses and white wigs of judges and advocates, though wigs have not been used for nearly two hundred years in other countries.

Strange as they may seem to a modern European or American, nobody in London sees anything remarkable in these old traditions which mix harmoniously with the city everyday life.

Traditions and customs arc very important for the British. They are proud of their traditions and carefully keep them up.

It is well known all over the world that the English don't like noisy behaviour. Nobody rushes for seats in buses or trains. The remarkable politeness of the British is one of their peculiar features. They are never tired of saying "Thank you", "I am sorry".

A typical Englishman is usually associated with a bowler hat, tea and talking about the weather.

Englishmen prefer to live in the house of their own. They are not inclined to live in an apartment in a block of flats. Traditionally, an English family has got a lawn in front of their house and a small garden behind it. They say: "An Englishman's home is his castle".

It gives Englishmen a great pleasure to sit in an arm-chair near a fireplace and watch dancing flames. Above the fireplace there is usually a shelf with a clock.

Changing of the Guard

The royal palace is traditionally guarded by special troops who wear colourful uniforms: scarlet tunics, blue trousers and bearskin caps. The history of the Foot Guards goes back to 1656, when King Charles II, during his exile in Holland recruited a small body-guard. Later this small body-guard grew into a regiment of guards. Changing of the guard is one of the most popular ceremonies. It takes place at Buckingham Palace every day at 11.30. The ceremony always attracts a lot of spectators —Londoners as well as visitors — to the British capital.

 Mounting the Guards

       Mounting the Guard is another colourful ceremony. It takes place at the Horse Guards, in Whitehall, at 11 a.m. every weekday and at 10 a.m. on Sundays. It always attracts sightseers. The Guard is a detachment of Cavalry troops and consists of the Royal Horse Guards and the Life Guards. The Royal Horse Guards wear deep-blue tunics and white metal helmets with red horsehair plumes, and have black sheep-skin saddles. The Life Guards wear scarlet uniforms and white metal helmets with white horsehair plumes, and have white sheер-skin saddles. Both the Royal Horse Guards and the Life Guards wear steel cuirasses — body armour that reaches down to the waist and consists of a breastplate and a backplate fastened together. The ceremony begins with the trumpeters sounding the call. The new guard arrives and the old guard is relieved. The two officers, also on horseback, salute each other and then stand side by side while the guard is changed. The ceremony lasts fifteen minutes and ends with the old guard returning to its barracks.

       The Ceremony of the Keys

         The Ceremony of the Keys dates back 700 years and has taken place every night since that time. It was never interrupted even during the air-raids by the Germans in the last war. Every night, at 9.53 p.m. the Chief Warder of the Yeomen Warders (Beefeaters) of the Tower of London lights a candle lantern and goes, accompanied by his Escort, towards the Bloody Tower. In his hand the Chief Warder carries the keys, with which he locks the West Gate and then the Middle Tower. Then the Chief Warder and his Escort return to the Bloody Tower, where they are stopped by the sentry. Then comes the following dialogue.

Having received permission to go on, the Chief Warder and his Escort walk through the Archway of the Bloody Tower and face the Main Guard ff the Tower, who gives the order to present arms, which means to hold a weapon upright in front of the body as a ceremonial greeting to an officer of high rank. The Chief Warder takes off his Tudor-style cap and cries, “God preserve Queen Elizabeth!" "Amen", answer the Main Guard and the Escort.

The London Parade

A spectacular event - the London Parade - brought cheer to the capital recently, when nearly 7000 people, including clowns - one of whom is seen here - cheerleaders and majorettes from all over the world, took part in a colourful procession through the streets.

The aims behind this increasingly popular annual event are to unite all the boroughs (Greater London has been said to be an amalgam of unrelated villages), to foster the spirit of international friendship, and to bring warmth and colour into the dark cold days.

The parade also raises considerable amounts of money for organization that helps people suffering from cerebral palsy, will benefit.

The 92 different groups taking part in the big parade included 26 of the finest international marching bands, 200 vehicles (including vintage cars and veteran cycles), Pearly Kings and Queens and business and charity "floats".

Entertaining spectators all along the route were members of Clowns International - the world's biggest clowning organisation, who were making their first appearance at the London Parade.

Trooping the Colour

The official birthday of the Sovereign is marked each year by a colourful and historic military parade and march-past, known as Trooping the Colour. It takes place each June on Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall, in front of crowds of onlookers and, thanks to television, is enjoyed by millions worldwide. The troops participating in the parade are drawn from a military organisation which, though a part of the Army and therefore composed of fully trained, operational troops, is a national institution - the Household Division.

It is The Queen's Colour of a Foot Guards battalion which is "trooped" each year before the Sovereign. The origin of the ceremony goes back to the early eighteenth century, and possibly even earlier, when the guards and sentries for the royal palaces and other important buildings in the capital were mounted daily on the parade ground by the Horse Guards building. A feature of guard mounting was for the colours (or flags) of the battalion, which, were - and still are -" symbols of  honour, but also in the past served as rallying points in battle, to be carried (or 'trooped') slowly down the ranks so that they could be seen and recognised  by the soldiers. In 1748 it was ordered that this parade would also mark the official birthday of the Sovereign and, in some years, also that of the royal consort, and From the accession of George IV it became – with a few exceptions most notably two World Wars- an annual event. Because the Guards, both Horse and Foot, are Household Troops whose special privilege it has always been to be in attendance on the monarch, their link with the Sovereign has been especially close. The custom for the Sovereign to take the salute personally at Trooping the Colour became a regular practice only with King Edward VII, but Queen Victoria's concern for and interest in her troops was most marked. She twice took the salute at Windsor Castle, and in 1845 watched incognito in London with the young Prince of Wales when Prince Albert was on duty. She was represented in London by her Commander-in-Chief: first the Duke of Wellington and later her cousin, the Duke of Cambridge. In 1896 the salute was taken on her behalf by the Prince of Wales who, on his accession in 1901 as King Edward VII, became Colonel-in-Chief of all the Household regiments and was regularly present at the parade.

 The Duke of Edinburgh, Colonel of the Grenadier Guards and the Senior Colonel of the Household Division, has referred to "the basic simplicity of the sequence of events and the curiously intimate nature of the whole thing ... The Birthday Parade has always been a typically British mixture of impeccable ceremonial with a very human and personal purpose."

Until 1913, the normal procedure for guard mounts from Horse Guards Parade was marked on the official birthday of the Sovereign by the attendance of the King Princes of the Blood Royal, visiting members of foreign Royal Families, the Army Council and other senior officers, and a large number of foreign military attaches and members of the Royal Households. Indeed in 1907 King Edward VII was accompanied by nine Royal Highnesses, Imperial Highnesses and Highnesses, and His Majesty's mounted procession when he arrived on the parade numbered over fifty. The King was greeted with a royal salute and carried out an inspection of the troops. The massed bands performed a slow and quick musical troop; and the escort for the colour advanced to receive the regimental colour which was then carried down the ranks. All the Foot Guards (and sometimes the Household Cavalry) marched past, and after a final salute the King and his procession departed, leaving the "duties" to be formed up for their various guards. This form of parade can still be seen during May, without the appearance of the Sovereign and those in attendance.

In 1914, however, King George V agreed that his Birthday Parade should be altered in order to present a more impressive display for the ever-increasing numbers of spectators. At the close of the ceremony, it was decided that the King should place himself at the head of his Guards and ride down the Mall to Buckingham Palace behind the massed bands. The troops who were to provide the King's Guard at the Palace and at St James's marched into .the forecourt for the Changing of the Guard, and His Majesty took up his position in the centre gateway, where he was saluted by the remainder of those on parade as they marched past and returned to barracks.

This is the procedure today, but with several modifications over the years by the Sovereign's command. In 1950, for example, King George VI ordered that the Household Cavalry should cease to be an independent corps, receiving their instructions almost directly from the Sovereign, but should be grouped with the Foot Guards in what was called the Household Brigade, and is now the Household Division. As a result it was decided that the mounted regiment, which comprised squadrons of The Life Guards and The Blues and Royals, should play a more important part than hitherto. Previously they had escorted the Sovereign to the parade ground and then returned to barracks. Now, with their mounted band, they walked and trotted past the King before or after the Foot Guards. The Royal Horse Artillery fired a salute in one of the royal parks, but it was later decided that they would also rank past the King at Buckingham Palace at the end of the ceremony, and when the march pasts had been completed His Majesty joined other members of the Royal Family on the balcony to witness the fly past by the Royal Air Force, a section of which, as the Royal Flying Corps Military Wing, had taken part for the first time at the Birthday Parade on Laffan's Plain, Aldershot, in 1913.

The Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, first appeared on parade, mounted, as Colonel of the Grenadier Guards in 1947, the first Birthday Parade to be held after the Second World War. All ranks wore battle-dress except the Sovereign's escort of the Household Cavalry, mounted officers and members of the regimental bands who were in service dress, and the Princess who was in blue uniform, wearing a forage cap which later became in style that of the Women's Royal Army Corps. In 1991, when the King was unable to take the salute himself because of illness, she deputised for him, and subsequently sent the following message to the Major-General Commanding: "Will you please inform all ranks that the King was delighted to hear my report on the excellence of the King's

Birthday Parade today.  I was very proud to deputise for the King and take the Parade for the first time."

The Queen has been at the saluting base every year of her reign with the exception of 1955, when a national rail strike forced the cancellation of the parade. There is, therefore, no one who is more expert or knowledgeable on every detail, and no mistake escapes her experienced eye. To all ranks of the Household Troops, who have been trained in their dual operational and ceremonial roles to accept one standard only - perfection - this is expected and is a source of pride. On this very special day they pay a personal tribute to their Sovereign and Colonel-in-Chief.

The scarlet tunic which was worn by The Queen when she rode on horseback always bore the badges and button groupings corresponding to the regiment whose colour was being trooped that year. She wore a tricorn hat with a plume, the colour of which was also changed to match the plume worn on the side of the guards' bearskins. The Duke of Edinburgh usually accompanies The Queen on horseback and wears the uniform of Colonel of the Grenadian Guards? while the Prince of Wales, who rode at the Trooping the Colour, for the first time in 1975, wears the uniform of Colonel of the Welsh Guards.

On the 1969 parade The Queen first rode Burmese and continued to do so until 1986. Her Majesty then decided that rather than train another charger for this distinguished role she would be driven in a phaeton which had been built for Queen Victoria in 1842, and take the salutes on Horse Guards and at the Palace from a dais. The Queen no longer wears her uniforms which were essentially habits designed for wear on horseback.

"Your Majesty's Guards are ready to march off, Ma'am" are the words addressed to The Queen by the Field Officer commanding the parade, followed by the moment when Her Majesty moves out and takes position at the head of The Queen's Guard. This climax symbolises what they have stood for over the centuries and their especial position in peace and war. This ceremony, for all who are serving or who have served in the Household Division, has become the focal point of what they mean when they talk of themselves, uniquely, as Guardsmen. But it is also the outward sign of The Queen's majesty.